Aberfan to be repaid pounds 150,000 taken from disaster fund

The Government announced yesterday that it was repaying to the Welsh mining village of Aberfan pounds 150,000 taken from the disaster relief fund in the aftermath of the 1966 landslide which killed 144 people, mainly children. Ron Davies, the Secretary of State for Wales, ended more than 30 years of bitterness by announcing that the Government would repay to the village the money taken from a pounds 2.5m disaster relief fund to help the National Coal Board clear nearby tips similar to the one which devastated the village.

Mr Davies said: "I have long made clear my view that there should have been no requirement in the first place for a contribution to be made from the disaster fund towards the cost of clearing the tips. I am pleased to announce I shall be making available a grant of pounds 150,000 to repay the sum originally contributed and to supplement provision in the Aberfan Disaster Fund and in the Memorial Charity."

Welcoming the move, Aberfan survivor Gaynor Madgwick, who was eight years old when she was pulled from the wreckage of the village school, commented: "I'm very pleased, although it should not have taken this long to have the pounds 150,000 returned to the fund."